A Sydney restaurant owner known for her tough attitude has broken down over how difficult it is to run a business in Australia, revealing it feels 'really hard' in the country.
Nahji Chu, well-known owner of Vietnamese restaurant Lady Chu in Potts Point, recently became emotional as she spoke about how people can take hard work for granted on the Where2fromhere podcast.
In the wide-ranging chat, which covered topics from bike lanes to the price of Vietnamese food, Ms Chu told host Renae Leith-Manos: 'I feel for everyone who works hard in Australia, not just me.'
'We work so hard and we get nothing, you get no thanks,' she said.
'No one ever says, "hey, thanks Nahji for the price point," but it's business, it's commercial, so you just have to deal with it.'
However, Ms Chu, who was born in Laos to a Vietnamese family and came to Australia as a child refugee, said she would not consider opening a restaurant overseas.
She said that kind of move would be like 'doing Year 12 and then not sitting the HSC'.
'It's like I've given it too much and I've worked too hard to leave, so no.
Sydney restaurant owner Nahji Chu (pictured) broke down over how difficult it is to run a business in Australia, revealing it feels 'really hard' in the country
Ms Chu told host Renae Leith-Manos (pictured) 'I feel for everyone who works hard in Australia, not just me'
'I want to reap the benefits of what I've done in Australia.'
Ms Chu also spoke on her ambitions of one day becoming a filmmaker and storyteller.
'I think I need to be kinder to myself right now and stick to my trajectory, which is to tell the Vietnamese story,' she said.
'There's thousands of people like me who had to survive doing restaurants because that's all they knew.'
'I'd like to go and interview them and just ask them what it's like in Canada, America, France, Germany.'
The emotional moment marked a departure from Ms Chu's usual humorous demeanour and the scathing responses she often issues to one-star Google reviews.
In one memorable exchange, she roasted a customer who had left her restaurant a lengthy critique.
'Thanks for your 1000-word review thesis. I admire the commitment. Most people only write this much when applying for a visa or divorcing their husband,' she replied.
Ms Chu, who was born in Laos to a Vietnamese family and came to Australia as a refugee at the age of eight, said she would not consider opening her restaurant overseas
Lady Chu opened in 2019 as a takeaway venue before expanding into a sit-down dining destination in 2021
Over time, Ms Chu has become a well-known figure on Sydney's dining scene thanks, in part, to her blunt responses.
Lady Chu opened in 2019 as a takeaway venue before expanding into a sit-down dining destination in 2021. It now sits along Roslyn Street.
Earlier this year, Ms Chu appeared on The Betoota Advocate podcast, where she explained how her blunt responses began.
'I was receiving more one-star reviews than five-star reviews, so I decided to give it back,' she said.
She also told the podcast at the time that the response quickly went viral and even landed the restaurant a recommendation in Qantas magazine as a must-visit dining destination.
Ms Chu has since continued to fire back at customers who leave scathing reviews of her restaurant.
Despite some one-star reviews, Lady Chu still averages four stars on Google.
Ms Chu has credited the reviews, alongside her food and staff, as one of the reasons people continue to visit the restaurant
'We are packed every night. And I mean, look, it's the food and the staff that speaks for itself,' she said.
'But I dare say people are now coming for the one-star reviews as well.'
Source link
